The people behind the name....SAOIRSE!

Ephesians 1:7-10 (The Message)

"Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah.....we're a free people - free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free!"

Why have we called ourselves Saoirse, the Irish word for freedom?

Jesus is distinctive in that He was free like no other man or woman before or after him.....

1. he was free in his heart (his motives and character were not polluted with selfishness like yours and mine) 
   
2. free in his head (his thinking was clear and based on God's objective truth so he didn't question who he was and what his father was like) but also 
   
3. free in his hands or conduct (such pure heart and thinking led to pure actions untainted by people pleasing and fear).
   

No wonder people loved being around him! They felt his freedom by just being with him and welcomed it gladly.

No wonder people hated being around him! His freedom challenged their tight shrivelled hearts and made them resentful!

So those who have said to Jesus, " I want my imprisoned, locked up old self, with all of its penalties and punishments, to be swallowed up by your nature" ( the "in Christ" ones), surely they should increasingly expect freedom to mark them out. If they don't, then they must be allowing someone other than Jesus to transform and influence them!

Even more exciting, is that communities and towns and cities and nations who live amongst the "in-Christ" ones, should expect to know more freedom in their lives.

Why? Because Jesus is still loving the broken and hurting through our hearts; Jesus is still dispelling the confusion of lies through his clear thinking truth in our heads; and Jesus is still acting with head-turning results as we live like he did with our hands and mouths and bodies.

Wow! Now wouldn't you want to be part of a family that increasingly knew freedom like that?!